It is unable to independently induce scarcity, verify value, and keep track of ownership.Įthereum is a globally shared substrate for coordination that solves this problem and gives groups of people on the internet the ability to organize into full socio-economic collectives. The reasons for this are many but, in short, it is mainly because the internet alone lacks economic incentives. The internet alone, however, lacks a viable way for these groups of people bound by shared sets of ideas to organize into full socio-economic collectives. People across the world with similar interests and affinities for particular ideas self-organized into niche internet subcultures. For the first time, cultures were not constrained geographically. This allowed for the abstract ideas that coordinate cooperation amongst us humans to be shared rapidly with high fidelity. Here, ideas and information are transmitted instantaneously on a global scale. The advent of modern information technologies such as the internet released ideas from these shackles into the digital realm. They first proliferated by word of mouth and then through writing both subject to the laws of physics. The interactions and relationships between these different ideas form the basis of our cultures and socio-economic systems.įor most of history ideas were constrained by the shackles of physical reality. Yet by collectively acting as if they exist, acknowledging them, and participating in them, massive amounts of coordination and progress can be achieved. Most are systems that cannot be touched, seen, pointed to, or otherwise directly observed. These things do not exist independently and only emerge from the complex interactions between individuals and collectives. Large numbers of strangers are able to effectively cooperate by conjuring up and communicating shared abstract ideas such as religions, nations, political parties, corporations, money, and human rights. In his best selling book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari argues that the unique human ability to transmit information about things that don’t really exist is what separates us from our closest primate ancestors.
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